I have lived in Chiang Mai in a serviced apartment for a year. On July 1 I will be moving into a rental house in Mae Jo. I am planning on hiring a lady to clean and do light cooking, etc. My expectation is that this will be a 2-3 day a week job, although I have an extra bedroom and for the right person it may become a live in position. We are a middle aged couple without children so there will be no child related chores. What is a fair wage to pay a maid in Chiang Mai for an 8 hour day? Any advice will be appreciated.

No kids,then i would pay 250-300 baht a day which is the same as a building site worker but easier.Do you and your wife work then???????

Around 200B/day for full time to start. A bit more if less than full time.

50 baht per hour if it's not a full-time position.

300 Bt

She only does the floors and bathrooms, twice per week.

( I wanted to pay her more, but the wife said no )

I have lived in Chiang Mai in a serviced apartment for a year. On July 1 I will be moving into a rental house in Mae Jo. I am planning on hiring a lady to clean and do light cooking, etc. My expectation is that this will be a 2-3 day a week job, although I have an extra bedroom and for the right person it may become a live in position. We are a middle aged couple without children so there will be no child related chores. What is a fair wage to pay a maid in Chiang Mai for an 8 hour day? Any advice will be appreciated.

For Mae Jo, I would suggest moving in and making do for a while by yourselves. During that time find out if your neighbors have a good maid that can recommend someone. This way that maid has some of her personal reputation invested in the recommendation. And if you live in a real gated/guarded community, get friendly with the guards and ask them after a while.

Sure, you don't need a maid 6 days a week, but, boy oh boy, is that easy to get used to. Offer a starting salary of maybe 4,000 baht/month for, say, 3 months and, if you like her work, give an automatic raise to 4,500 (this is in line with Bill97's suggested 200/day for full time). You may or may not want to add that there will be yearly adjustments.

The work day would be 6 days a week, 8 hr/day. If house work is done in less, you either can let her go home or get her to do work outside. My neighbor's maid cleans the fish pond, washes the car, power washes the driveway, washes the outside of all windows, etc. Mine would too, but I need the exercise and do all that myself except for the windows; I don't do windows.

I have to repeat, once you get used to the daily housekeeping, you will wonder how you managed to live without it. Just think, you can have a dinner party 6 nights a week and leave the mess. Sleep in the next morning and it will all be clean when you get up!

I personally prefer having the maid just come during the day vice living here. I like the privacy at night and can bang around at 5:30 in the morning getting coffee without having to worry about bothering her.

I appreciate the help. I especially appreciate Noise's comments and will take that advice. Thanks all.